You can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction

Monthly Archives: May 2017

I’m broke and I have a horrible health, so I’m always looking for opportunities to make money working from home. Browsing the web I found out about people who became rich thanks to their blogs or vlogs. And browsing more, I found out the existence of the so called influencers. I learned that many bloggers achieved the influencer status through their blogs, but that not all influencers have a blog.

Many of them provide useful tips, tell interesting things or are funny without being stupid. Unfortunately, above all regarding Italy, the most famous bloggers/vloggers talk about nonsense and as regarding influencers, in the social media there are large number of people who are unworthy of such honour. Through Instagram I saw many of them at Milan Fashion Week (but it could be any event) and the way they were seeking paparazzi attention, was embarassing, I found pathetic the fact that they were constantly changing their outfits during the shows in order to get more pictures. I don’t know nothing about fashion, but the way influencers dress is not fashionable at all.

Let’s be honest: people who are viewed as social media influencers, don’t teach anything, they’re followed by mainly young girls who see them as icons, who call them “Queen” or “my inspiration” and they end thinking that the most important thing is to wear brands for free just taking selfies or showing their bodies. Why do we reward stupidity?

So here’s my suggestion to fight this madness:

-Stop giving them attention. The more you adore (or hate) them you empower untalented people.

-Browse WordPress or a similar site and find blogs run by unknown people who have something to say. Talk to them, learn from them.

Many things have been written about what happened in Manchester. I read disgusting sarcasm like “Here’s what you get for listening shitty music”, a lot of hate, too many useless theories, a few jackals/journalists stalking victim’s relatives in order to get the perfect moving story, the usual comment of people who state that we only get indignant because it happened in Europe.

It is said: don’t wash your dirty linen in public; what wise advice to follow! But it is inapplicable when it’s up to International music competitions where Italy has to show out her artists. I’m always ashamed to show that my fellow countrymen listens and what there’s on the top of Italian charts: it’s time for Eurovision Contest again, this year the Italian contestant is a nice guy with a catchy song named “Occidentali’s Karma” which won Festival di Sanremo 2017. I can call myself lucky after past years critics regarding the Volo trio (“Oh. Italians never age! Those old men look so young!” or “Who are those mummies?” a few of my friends’ kindest comments) or singer Emma Marrone (“Where are her clothes?”).

My foreign friends seem to like Francesco Gabbani, they find his dance funny and his song pleasant and easy listening. So, what am I complaining about? That everybody wants me to translate “the dancing ape song”. And it’s a quite difficult task since there are a lot of unusual terms; in the end I made it, but the song lost a bit of its wit.

I don’t have Netflix and I’m not a TV shows addict (even if I’ve seen every single episode of ER at least twice), but it’s almost impossible to ignore what’s popular at the moment, due to the huge amount of posts on socials.

I read “13 Reasons Why” when the serie didn’t exist and when it wasn’t on fashion already, because my best friend suggested me this book. The story is about Hannah Baker, a young girl who has committed suicide, but who also previously recorded 13 cassette tapes where she explains the reasons behind her act. Each tape is dedicated to a single person who had a negative impact on her life.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

Even if I believe that most of the people commit not because somebody did something bad to them, but because they felt guilty of or uncomfortable with what they experienced, the book wasn’t bad nor triggering at all.

I didn’t like the show (yes, I watched it because I was curious) despite of admitting that its intents were positive and that it was meant to be useful and supportive for teens (ask for help if you feel depressed, you’re not alone, find someone to talk to, denounce bullies and rapists).

It looks like it’s trying to glamorize suicide, since in the book Hannah simply tells that she killed herself by taking a bunch of pills and her act is almost glossed over for the most part. In the show, she slits her wrists and it’s a very detailed scene that could disturb or be triggering to people who experienced or are still into self harming.

The show also tries to suggest a romantic involvement between Clay and Hannah, while in the book they’re no more than friends, I think this was made to lead the viewers to sympathize with the characters. It also gives a bigger importance to the functionality of parents rather than in the book, where they are mere extras.

One thing I like a lot about the show, was the soundtrack: 133 songs for all tastes from Selena Gomez (who is also the executive producer of the TV show and who is very active in social causes) to Vance Joy, passing through Joy Division and hear ye hear ye, The Cure. I was very happy to listen to “Fascination Street”, but there’s another song of theirs that I think it was perfect for the show and it’s “The Reasons why” (it’s also the title of a fan fiction of mine).